ABSTRACT
Indeed, it can be argued that the loyalist reaction played a far greater part in the development of class feeling than the movement which provoked it. While the Reformers were intent on keeping their wings together by playing down class differences, and hotly denied any threat to property or the economic foundations of society, it was their opponents who raised the spectre of class with wild accusations of levelling principles and the threat of social revolution. An erstwhile Reformer turned Loyalist declared in 1792:
If Mr. Paine should be able to rouse up the lower classes, their interference will probably be marked by wild work, and all we now possess, whether in private property or public liberty, will be at the mercy of a lawless and furious rabble.2
